Month: December 2014

Kara was four months old in this photo. Don’t be fooled by the “cuteness” of the image she portrays. We had never experienced the joys!!! of sharing a house with a very energetic Afghan Hound. Her days were spent persuading Nutmeg the cat to play all types of frenetic games or observing him closely to learn new ideas like opening doors. Plenty of long walks or playing chase around the house or doing things to squeaky or fluffy toys and balls and old shoes or new shoes or anything within reach did not burn all the energy. For some weeks her favourite evening cooling down activity was to quietly pretend she was in bed and wait for the lights to go out. Then she would enjoy laps of the house involving jumping onto the bed , racing across it, out the door around the lounge then back into the bedroom across the bed etc etc. This human couch was her favourite resting place until we bought her a futon that was passed onto Charlie as the next generation.

Charlie loves roaming in the Ironbark bush at Bendigo. There are always lots of new scents and sightings to keep her imagination working. The area in this photo was once part of the most extensive deep lead gold mining works in Australia during the mid-nineteenth century. This bushland was totally obliterated during the gold mining times and what we see today is a regeneration of sorts, the original can never return. There are some beautiful native orchids that flower briefly across a period from mid winter to early spring.

In Melbourne Australia summer has arrived and weather predictions are for increasingly hotter days, ( over 30 oC and even over 40 o C) as climate change reality continues to remind us to cut CO2 emissions. ( What did our politicians achieve in Lima this week?????) This summer snow is the beautiful blossoming of a particular paperbark tree in our front yard. Many insects including bees are attracted to the nectar and in turn the birds are attracted to the insects. Our local noisy and prolific Red Wattle Birds double dip on nectar in the mornings and insects in the evening. Hopefully micro-bats also visit to feast on the insects however one needs a bat recorder to pick up their signals as they are usually too small and fast to see and their sound frequency inaudible to the human ear.

Since the coastal area around Ricketts Point Beaumaris on Port Phillip Bay has become a marine park the numbers and variety of fish have increased. Along with the fish have come increasing numbers and variety of marine feeding birds. These pelicans are some of the many that now regularly feed and roost on the rock shelves. Usually hundreds of seagulls and sometimes up to 50 black swans frequent the tidal area. Depending on the time of year various migratory seabirds can be seen around the point resting, feeding or just passing through.

The setting sun over Port Phillip Bay in Melbourne is an unknown treasure each evening. Rarely does one event repeat another and often a variety of visual experiences occur within one sunset. The mixture of sinking sun, cloud, wind and water leave the watcher with a mix of feelings and emotions. A natural viewing experience that can never be bought or sold.

Springtime in Melbourne and the first round of surviving fledglings are reaching their first hurdle . This young Australian Magpie is being taught by its parents to begin looking for food rather than scream out “feed me” loudly and continuously. The parents practice much patience as they show the young one how to listen then dig for grubs on the ground. During this time we leave out a minimum amount of special native bird paste for this species. After 3 weeks of feeding the fledgling this paste the parents now pretend to eat it until the young one actually picks up and eats pieces of the paste independently. The moment this happens the parents fly off leaving the baby eating by itself.